According to Senator Tester’s public schedule, Senator Tester held 218 meetings with lobbyists between January 2023 and August 2024. This figure also does not include meetings between Tester’s staff and lobbyists.
Anti-lobbying sentiments have been a central theme of Tester’s campaigns and tenure in the Senate, with his first opponent, Conrad Burns, engulfed by the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. In a 2006 debate, Tester proclaimed that he “won’t sell Montana down the road by cutting deals with K-Street lobbyists.” In a campaign ad, he said “special interests will never hitch a ride in this truck.” The Senator even publicly took an ethics pledge, vowing to disclose all meetings with lobbyists and special interest groups, and promising not to read more
